Hi everyone,
I saw it -- it's a top-notch Hollywood film, possibly the best commercial action movie since Jan De Bont's original Speed.
Everything here works -- there are no way over the top, CGI effects, no corny one-liners, no hip attitude and posturing. Rather, it's an efficient, wonderfully edited, scored and shot thriller. There are sequences here that are mounted with such care--the cinematography, editing and sound design--and to top it off, a great performance from, yes, Tom Cruise, and a real romantic heart at the core. It's more in the vein of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard and a dash of True Lies than anything modern and ironic. Some standout sequences include an early helicopter chase while trying to de-fuse a bomb planted in someone's brain, a very brisk, funny and thrilling inflitration of the Vatican, and a prisoner transport that goes horribly wrong on what appears to be Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys. And then there's the matter of a parachute precariously low over nighttime Shanghai.
Moment to watch for: a surprising scene at the end of the film involving CPR that I can't describe, but that actually choked me up.
It's a vast improvement on the awful second picture and even better than the first one. This is the real deal folks, and the audience I saw it with went nuts for it. This is why we go to Hollywood movies--it is escape done with a streak of such cleverness--I'm jaded on this franchise and Cruise, but the film is a stunner.
Highly recommended -- it ranks with V for Vendetta, United 93, Thank You for Smoking and Akeelah and the Bee as one of the year's best movies, and I'm tempted to put it at the top of the list.
A minor quibble -- Philip Seymour Hoffman is not given much to do really, or any compelling monologue or meat in his character, which keeps him from being a great villain.
Let the Tom Cruise baggage go and appreciate what he's done here, because it's a terrific performance and it might get undersold since the film itself is such a big event.
rt
